A growing attention to avoiding consumption, discarding, and pollution both honors the earth and protects the life upon it. Household- and community-led composting projects… local governments mandating that all new housing be energy-efficient… national agreements to reduce carbon emissions… these and many other initiatives are part of the quickly spreading movement.

This is part 4 of a four-part article series “Cultivating Climate Justice” which tells the stories of community groups on the frontlines of the pollution, waste and climate crises, working together for systems change. United across six continents, these grassroots groups are defending community rights to clean air, clean water, zero waste, environmental justice, and good jobs. They are all members of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a network of over 800 organizations from 90+ countries.

When the people of Hernani, Spain, began a residential compost system, they weren’t looking to become heroes of the movement for climate justice. Like thousands of other towns around the world, they were simply looking for an alternative to incineration and the pollution it brings.

This is part 3 of a four-part article series “Cultivating Climate Justice” which tells the stories of community groups on the frontlines of the pollution, waste and climate crises, working together for systems change. United across six continents, these grassroots groups are defending community rights to clean air, clean water, zero waste, environmental justice, and good jobs. They are all members of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a network of over 800 organizations from 90+ countries.

This is a tale of two U.S. cities building solutions to the climate crisis from the bottom up.

We start in the Northeast of the country, with Cooperative Energy, Recycling and Organics (CERO), a newly formed worker-owned cooperative in Boston, Massachusetts. While providing family-supporting jobs for the community, CERO works with businesses on separating out materials that can be recovered. They then collect this waste in a truck and bring it to facilities where it can either be recycled or returned to the soil as compost.

This is part 2 of a four-part article series “Cultivating Climate Justice” which tells the stories of community groups on the frontlines of the pollution, waste and climate crises, working together for systems change. United across six continents, these grassroots groups are defending community rights to clean air, clean water, zero waste, environmental justice, and good jobs. They are all members of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a network of over 800 organizations from 90+ countries.

“To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change.... I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian Ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned… And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now.” - Philippines lead negotiator Yeb Sano addressing the opening session of the UN climate summit in Warsaw, following Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013

Join Witness for Peace on a critical delegation to Honduras this January! The delegation will focus on learning how trade agreements and militarization have affected communities and human rights conditions in Latin America, and delegates will be documenting the realities for working people and reporting back to tell their stories and make change in U.S. policies. Witness for Peace has extended the application deadline to November 14th, so there is still time to apply!

Recent news coverage has shown the massive numbers of Honduran children and families fleeing to the United States. The root causes of this migration, including economic trade policies and drug-war based militarization, are tied to United States policies and practices. Economic disparities have destabilized communities and fueled drug trafficking and criminal gangs. Also, campesino and indigenous leaders, the LGBTQ community, human rights lawyers, journalists, and unionists are targeted and killed. Familes, especially children, are fleeing the violence and migrating to the North.

Homes like these in the village of Madam Bernard, Ile à Vache, Haiti, might be removed to make way for tourist development or islanders removed from other areas might be relocated here. Credit: Judith Scherr/IPS

With the financial recovery looking more like the Great Recession, people are turning to the real goods and services of the earth economy. As stock prices rise and the top one percent bloats with wealth, for many in the 99 percent incomes are eroding and job security is a quaint concept from the past.

The 2013 Global Day of Action on Waste and Incineration will be part of the Global Month of Action on Dirty Energy organized by a coalition of international networks. This Month of Action is a united effort to demand the transformation of our energy systems in favor of sustainable and community-based solutions.